What's Hot: Slim and light, easy to use, the stand works in either orientation.

What's Not: The back is a bit slippery.

Reviewed by Tong Zhang

If you've been following our iPhone 4S case reviews, you're already familiar with the Macally Glow-In-They-Dark Case for the iPhone 4S. The Glow-In-The-Dark Case with Stand has a similar form case but comes with a small stand that you can use with the iPhone 4S/4's sync/charge cable, and position the phone in either portrait or landscape orientation for media watching or making Facetime calls.

Design

The Macally Glow-In-The-Dark Case with Stand comes in two parts: a hard shell case and a small plastic stand. The hard shell case has some small differences in design from the Glow-In-The-Dark case including an extra cutout hole on the back that exposes the Apple logo. But the majority of the design and form factor remains the same: the case combines a hard shell on the back with rubber-like sides that glow in the dark. The case is very form fitting, and thanks to the rubberized material on the sides, it's easy to put it on or peel off of the iPhone 4S. The hard shell provides excellent protection against scratches, bumps and nicks from other objects in your bag or backpack, while the outlines of the glowing sides indicate the location of your iPhone in the dark. As with the regular Glow-In-The-Dark Case, the glow from the case is faint green, quite easy to see in a very dark room but not to bright to pulse light and disturb your sleep.

The large cutout on the back is great for showing off that you are using an iPhone 4S or iPhone 4, but the metal ring on the cutout isn't completely smooth. It won't cut your fingers when you run through it, but it's sharp enough that we suggest you don't let your small children play with it. If you have a white iPhone 4S and didn't want the heavily tinted dark Glow-In-The-Dark Case, the Glow-In-The-Dark Case with Stand comes in a solid white color on the back and grey/white sides. The back of the case is a bit slippery, but as with the other case, it has small rubber feet on the back so that the phone won't slide on a slippery surface, except on this one, the rubber glowing feet come from the corners as well as the camera cutout.

Features

The Glow-In-The-Dark Case with Stand for iPhone 4S/4 is a very functional case. The case has perfect cutouts on top to give you access to the power button, audio out jack and the top mic. The cutout for the audio out jack is framed right up to the port, so be sure to use headsets/headphones without heavy stems, and the iPhone 4S' headphone works just fine. The case has a side cutout for the silence button that fits all iPhone 4 models, and puts the volume buttons under the cover. There are two round raised rubber buttons covering the volume button, making it very easy to use these controls under the case. There are three cutouts on the bottom to give you access to the 30-pin connector, the speaker and the bottom mic. You should have no trouble using any sync/charge cable with your phone in the case, but be sure to pick your docks, speakers and alarm clocks with some extra space for the connector to accommodate the case. The rear camera cutout gives the camera full view and the flash enough space to fully illuminate.

The Glow-In-The-Dark Case with Stand for iPhone 4S/4 comes with an extra piece, the stand. It's a very simply plastic stand that has cutouts to let your iPhone 4S/4's charge/sync cable to stick up in order to dock the iPhone 4S on the stand. The stand has a wire channel on the bottom to hold the charging cable. Once your iPhone 4S is "dock" on the stand, you can keep it up right in portrait mode, or flip to landscape mode for movie viewing. The stand doesn't come with the cable, so you will need to use your own USB charging cable. The stand is reasonably steady, but you need it to stand more permanently, the stand comes with rubber pad stickers for the bottom of the stand.

Conclusion

The Glow-In-The-Dark Case with Stand for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 is for users who need to find their phones in the dark and a stand to hold the phone in more convenient angles for different tasks. It's especially fitting for the white iPhone 4S/4 owners as the case comes in white and has a cutout for the Apple logo the color of the phone to show. The hard shell case combined with rubberized sides work well to provide good protection and easy to use functions. The case offers good accessibility to the phone, and the stand comes in very handy albeit with little additional feature other than propping up the iPhone.